Home Office

Fire Prevention: Inspections

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many inspection and enforcement staff have been employed to audit premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in each Fire Safety Authority in England in each year since 2009-10.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not hold information on how many inspection and enforcement staff have been employed to audit premises.

Fire Prevention: Prosecutions

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions each fire safety authority brought prosecutions against persons under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in each year since 2009-10.

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) cautions, (b) Alteration Notices, (c) Enforcement Notices and (d) Prohibition Notices under Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 were issued by each Fire Safety Authority in England in each year since 2009-10.

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many inspections of premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 were carried out by each Fire Safety Authority in England in each year since 2009-10.

Mr Nick Hurd: The latest published information on Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 can be found in Table 1202 of the “Fire and rescue authorities: operational statistics bulletin for England 2015 to 2016” available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tablesData for 2009-10 are published in Appendix table 15 accompanying the 2009-10 release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-and-rescue-authorities-operational-statistics-bulletin-for-england-2009-to-2010

European Cybercrime Centre

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions the UK has received support from the European Cybercrime Centre in each year since that centre's creation.

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many files the UK has sent to the Europol Malware Analysis Solution in each of the last three years.

Mr Nick Hurd: In a modern, interconnected world, crime is increasingly international and does not respect borders. The Government is clear that effective cooperation with EU Member States on security, justice and policing in order to tackle serious organised crime will continue to be a top UK priority. The 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS) confirmed that cybercrime is a top threat to the UK’s economic and national security. The UK’s future security and prosperity depends on our ability to safeguard the digital information, data and networks at home and abroad. The cyber threats we face continue to grow in scale and sophistication. The Government will continue to invest in law enforcement capabilities to ensure delivery agencies have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime. The Government values the role of Europol and that is why the UK opted-in to the new Europol Regulation, which came into force on 1 May 2017, enabling us to maintain our current access to the agency and benefit from its cooperation and operational advantages until we leave the EU. Intelligence exchange between UK law enforcement and Europol is well-established and takes place on a daily and routine basis on a wide range of criminal activity, including cybercrime. The National Crime Agency (NCA) also support Europol with seconded staff, including within the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). This cooperation continues to assist UK efforts to tackle cybercrime impacting on the UK. Since its launch, the UK has submitted 414,776 malware files to the Europol Malware Analysis Solution. The data requested on how many occasions the UK has received support from the European Cybercrime Centre is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Firearms: Liverpool

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that Merseyside Police has the funding necessary to tackle the recent change in the level of gun crime in Liverpool.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to respond to the recent changes in the level of gun crime in Merseyside.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent representations she has received from Merseyside Police on tackling gun crime in Liverpool.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes in funding for Merseyside Police on its capacity to tackle rising gun crime in Liverpool.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government takes gun crime very seriously. The legislative controls on firearms have recently been strengthened in the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and we are working with law enforcement partners to reduce the threat posed by gun crime. We have introduced new offences to tackle the unlawful importation and supply of firearms, and the criminal use of imitation firearms and deactivated weapons. We have committed £2 million over two years to the development of new automatic threat detection technology at the UK Border. A multi-agency firearms unit has also been recently established, led jointly by the National Crime Agency and Counter Terrorism Policing, to coordinate law enforcement activity to disrupt the supply of illegal firearms and improve our understanding of the threat. We are aware of concerns about gun crime on Merseyside and we are working with Merseyside Police and other partners to understand what lies behind the recent local increases in gun crime and whether there is more to be done to address these issues. With regard to police funding, the 2015 Spending Review protected overall police spending in real terms. It is a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to determine how to use their available resources according to local and national priorities.

Police: Merseyside

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect of the level of 2017 policing budget on police numbers in Merseyside for (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.

Mr Nick Hurd: Every Police & Crime Commissioner who maximised their local precept income in 2016-17 and 2017-18 is receiving at least the same direct resource funding in cash than they received in 2015-16. In Merseyside, the PCC is receiving £0.5m more direct resource funding in 2017-18 than in 2015-16.Decisions about local policing roles and officer numbers are for Chief Constables and PCCs. This discretion and flexibility has allowed for a range of targeted, more resilient approaches tailored to local needs, that is constantly held to account by the people officers serve.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential effects of changes in the level of funding to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on its ability to respond effectively to large-scale disasters.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect of changes to the level of revenue support grant received by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on its ability to respond effectively to large-scale disasters.

Mr Nick Hurd: Fire and Rescue Authorities have delivered significant savings since 2010. Fire incidents in Merseyside are down by a third since 2010. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority will receive a broadly flat settlement, with core spending power reducing by one percent in cash terms over this spending review period. Merseyside held £28.2 million of non-ringfenced reserves at March 2016, up by £10.4 million since 2010/11. The Government provides funding and equipment for national resilience capabilities which gives the fire and rescue sector the resources necessary to respond to specific types of large scale incidents. In 2017/18 Merseyside received £0.8 million to support the capabilities they host.

Domestic Appliances: Fires

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will commission research into the reasons for the growth in the number of electrical fires.

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of electrical fires in the home.

Mr Nick Hurd: The number of accidental primary fires in England where the fire and rescue service recorded the ignition power source for the fire as electric decreased from 34,431 in 2010/11 to 30,136 in 2015/16. There are no plans to commission research on this topic.The number of accidental dwelling fires where the ignition power source was ‘electric’ decreased from 19,603 in 2010/11 to 18,288 in 2014/15. The Home Department has not estimated the costs of these fires.See fire statistics table FIRE0605. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables#cause-of-fire)

Electronic Equipment: Fires

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on the inclusion of (a) mobile phone chargers and (b) e-cigarettes in fire statistics released by her Department.

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with fire and rescue services on the inclusion of (a) mobile phone chargers and (b) e-cigarettes in their incident recording and statistical collation systems.

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consideration the Fire and Rescue Statistics User Group has given to improving the statistical collation of modern technology incidents and fires from (a) mobile phone chargers, (b) tablets and (c) e-cigarettes.

Mr Nick Hurd: Mobile phone chargers are currently captured under the category ‘battery charger’ in the Incident Recording System, tablets under the ‘pc’ category and e-cigarettes can be recorded in an ‘other’ category.Home Office officials have regular discussions with fire and rescue services and other users of fire statistics, including the Fire and Rescue Statistics User Group. Feedback from these groups, including how to best capture new technology, will be used to inform an update of the categories in the Incident Recording System at the next opportunity. Any additions to fire data collections are governed by the Single Data List process to ensure that the burden of any new data collection is considered.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Football: Ethnic Groups

Dawn Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase representation of black and minority ethnic individuals in the football coaching profession.

Tracey Crouch: Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the Football Association to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game. Coaching across all sports forms a key element of the government's sport strategy, which aims to promote physical and mental wellbeing and individual, community and economic development through sport and physical activity. With 37 per cent of BAME people playing sport once a week but only five per cent of qualified coaches being from BAME backgrounds, Sport England's Coaching Plan for England, published in November 2016, aims to create a more diverse coaching workforce so that more participants are able to be coached by people who are immediately empathetic to their needs and reflective of their social environment. The coaching plan is available athttps://www.sportengland.org/media/11317/coaching-in-an-active-nation_the-coaching-plan-for-england.pdf.